Meet IBM technical experts at Bedfont, England on May 23rd. They will deliver a half-day technical customer briefing entitled "Effective Team Collaboration in an On Demand Workplace." Or if you are in Amsterdam on the 24th afternoon, that will work too...

This event will highlight how organizations can benefit from the capabilities of our Lotus technologies to become, and remain, a flexible, highly responsive on demand business. This road show is unique in that the content is delivered via live demonstrations and technical discussion.

IBM announced IBM Workplace for SAP Software and IBM Lotus Notes access for SAP solutions. Drawing on IBM's Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) technologies, these products (part of an IBM initiative called Project Harmony) would be music in customer's ears. Want to know why?Rich client: IBM Lotus Notes access for SAP Solutions - Feature1. Investment protection; No additional cost to Lotus Notes 7.0.1 customers - No need to even upgrade your SAP system - Supports SAP R/3 4.6C. It does NOT require Netweaver 2004. - New feature of Lotus Notes 7.0.1 software. - Certain current licensees of Lotus Notes for Collaboration can download this feature from IBM Passport Advantage website2. This new feature includes pre-packaged templates that makes SAP data more accessible and useful. - New and modified Lotus Notes Template Files (NTFs) - Uses LotusScript to define the integration - Files needed to access and make remote function calls against the SAP system from the Lotus Notes Client are included - Lotus Connector LotusScript Extension (Lotus Connector LSX) - Lotus Connector for SAP Solutions (license only for Lotus Notes client and NOT the Lotus Domino server) 3. Continue to leverage the security, disconnected usage, and replication feature of Notes when using it to access SAP data.4. Integrate business processes that exist in both SAP appplications and Lotus Notes into a single, familiar user experience within Lotus Notes. True workflow integration: - Vacation/Leave request: - Employee requests vacation or leave time from manager using Lotus Notes calendar and Lotus Notes email - Approved time is automatically recorded in the SAP application - Follow on action items such as scheduling - Time reporting: Use Lotus Notes calendar to report billable/other time to SAP applications - based on project codes stored in SAP. - Query and selectively submit billable time to SAP in real time. This works both online and offline. - Report Generation: Schedule or run a SAP report using the Lotus Notes client. - Contact Management: Look up contact information from mySAP HR and CRM applications and add it to personal contacts in Lotus Notes. - SAP workflow integration: Review and process SAP workflow items using the Lotus Notes client. More including Employee Self-service/Manager Self-service, and meeting scheduling is expected to be made available in Lotus Notes 7.0.2 maintenance release targeted for Q3,2006.visit http://www.ibm.com/lotus/notesforsap for more informationThin Client (web browser): IBM Workplace for SAP Software1. Integrates views from various applications based on Role and business process.2. Integrates SAP applications with IBM collaboration technology.3. Provides pre-built adapters for SAP and other widely used applications.4. Augment the user experience of IBM Workplace for SAP Software with scorecards, dashboards, alerts, e-forms, instant messaging, teamrooms, presence awareness, and document /content management.5. Provides transparency to the end user in terms of technology migration and upgradesAnd in general:1. An ecosystem of services organizations ranging from IBM business partners to IBM Software Services for Lotus and IBM Global Business Services and associated SAP practice resources are available for customization.2. IBM Workplace family of products including Lotus Notes Domino, WebSphere Portal, Workplace Managed Client, support integration of non SAP applications also.3. Continue to leverage current Lotus Notes integration with MS Office.[Read More]

Microsoft: Proposed Open XML (see quote from this article: http://comment.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020505,39267678,00.htm on May 8th) "ODF was created by a consultative process, which is some guarantee against hidden agendas. It is an ISO standard: it has passed expert scrutiny and can be considered fit for use. It is properly open: it can be made part of any product without the need for authorisation or licensing. It is available now. None of this is true of OpenXML, which, even as it goes forward for consideration as an international standard, remains under the control of one company, with many of the format's technical details yet to be revealed."

Web Services

Application Block: varying levels of maturity. some are pretty old components. For example: .NET 1.1 had No-Touch deployment. .NET 2.0 has ClickOnce. Vista is promising to deliver significant change to ClickOnce. Which is the right choice for Developers? Another example: Composite UI Application Block vs Windows Presentation Foundation, Avalon? How will caching and off-line applicaiton blocks fit with Windows Communication Foundation (WCF - Indigo)?

IBM provides local and encrypted data store using Cloudscape with associated client middleware such as local application server and EJB container that allows execution of rich client applications on the desktop/device. Uses SynchML4J for replication.

): "And so we've been very lucky that as IBM has had a discontinuity, that they're saying, well, your Notes applications aren't going to continue to run, we want you to move to a new environment, which is some WebSphere type thing, people have had to step back and say, okay, it's not the best messaging system, Exchange has been totally focused on those scenarios, and it's not the best collaboration platform because it's sort of stuck as a pretty good messaging platform and a pretty good collaboration platform."

Gates went on to say when people think about comparisons of Microsoft and IBM/Lotus they should not think just about Exchange. "For messaging, Exchange is the best system, but we never turned Exchange into a collaboration platform. SharePoint is clearly our collaboration platform."

Gates was quoted last year saying:

Fortune: How much has Microsoft wanted to beat Notes?

Gates: There are two ways to think of Notes. One is as an e-mail product, and the other is as a deep collaboration product. Microsoft competed with Notes as e-mail. We never matched Notes in some of the collaborative features.

So, according to Gates: Notes Domino is a pretty good messaging and collaboration platform. Exchange is the best system for messaging and not the best system for collaboration. Sharepoint Server 2007 is/will be the best collaboration platform?

So, here are the Top 10 reasons why IBM does pose a competitive threat to Microsoft!!!

9. IBM is now offering a choice of desktop - with Linux and software that meets customer needs - The mantra is flexibility and choice, Investment Protection.

8. IBM offers choice for Productivity tools: targeting under and over provisioned users, which based on popular user segmentation model, is more than 90% of the desktop users!!

7. IBM productivity editors, like many others in the marketplace, but for Microsoft Office, supports ODF. ODF has been voted to be an ISO International Standard. While Microsoft is active with OpenXML, analysts such as Gartner doubt if this will make it to an ISO standard!

5.Several IBM customers are coming back to IBM after trying out Microsoft Exchange and Sharepoint. TheMigrate to the Penguin initiative is gaining momentum.

4.Solutions offered by IBM Global Technology and Business services address customer transformation needs end-end. The emerging BTO models are forcing Microsoft to speed up their "Live" capabilities! The Strategic Outsourcing team currently host millions of users of messaging and collaboration capabilities.

Organizations and individuals that store their data in ODF XML avoid being locked in to a single software vendor, leaving them free to switch software if their current vendor goes out- of- business, raises its prices, changes its software, or changes alters its licensing terms.

The OASIS OpenDocument Format for Office Applications V1.0 (known simply as ODF), was submitted for fast track approval by the ISO/IEC international standards organizations in 4Q/2005. The submission was balloted this week (May 1, 2006) as an International Standard in ISO/IEC's Joint Technical Committee on Information Technology. See http://www.odfalliance.org/press/AllianceRelease3May06.pdf . The new international standard has been given the designation, ISO/IEC 26300 (ODF V1.0). ISO/IEC 26300 was approved by ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology, subcommittee SC 34, Document description and processing languages.

The standard will continue to be maintained and advanced by the OASIS OpenDocument Technical Committee and the recently formed OASIS ODF Adoption Committee, both of which remain open to participation from users, suppliers, government agencies, and individuals.

Is the state of Massachusetts biased against proprietary software makers? I don't know -- although under the circumstances, it sounds like a good idea to me.

To understand why, you'll first have to parse this bit of sophistry, which comes courtesy of Melanie Wyne, the executive director of the Institute for Software Choice:

"The RFP reveals that the choice presented by the previous ITD [Massachusetts Division of Technology] bureaucrats. i.e., ODF-compliant desktops for state agencies are the only viable options for citizens to have access to their data in the future, was purposely exclusionary, being primarily designed to distort the competitive landscape.

"In other words, it had little to do with access to documents, and everything to do with excluding proprietary software providers.

" Wyne clearly (or, perhaps, not so clearly- that first sentence is a doozie) does not like the fact that Massachusetts went shopping for a plug-in capable of converting Office documents to the open-source ODF format. Nor is she pleased that the state issued its RFP for such a plugin just two days after ISO approved ODF as a bona fide open standard. ..."

Just because Microsoft is beating the standards drum doesn't mean that it is planning to ramp up its standards involvement, however, Robertson cautioned.

"You can achieve interoperability in a number of ways," said Robertson. Among them: joint collaboration agreements, technology licensing and interoperability pacts. "Standards are not always appropriate," Robertson said. And in the cases in which they are, "you should standardize only what is necessary."

Some questions to ask Microsoft:

Will there still be proprietary extensions within the Microsoft XML implementation that are known only to Microsoft and keep the implementation from being fully open and will the format include macros that call on proprietary application?

Are there intellectual property constraints which would preclude or make difficult the adoption of this technology as a truly open standard?

Are there licensing terms which would preclude implementation by the open source community?

Why will it be 18 months before developers will be able to get the full specification from ECMA and if that is due to ECMA's process why doesn't Microsoft release it to the public before hand?

Finally, what will happen "post" standard process? Who will be in charge of the evolution of the standard? One proprietary vendor or the industry?

The following article from the Editor in Chief of Computer world Don Tennant says it all. In this particular case, the customer was a meticulous book keeper. The sales rep. continued to push the customer! Is this a tactic to get customers to renew their Enterprise Agreement?I strongly encourage anyone reading this blog, who might have come across similar practice from Microsoft, to share it in this blog or email me!Rotten Effort don_tennant@computerworld.comhttp://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=111186&source=NLT_MGT&nlid=23May 08, 2006 (Computerworld): It's bad enough when Microsoft strong-arms other software vendors into submission as a means of thwarting competition. But when it engages in underhanded tactics to intimidate users in order to land a software deal, we have a very disturbing situation on our hands. And someone needs to have the guts to speak out about it. Fortunately, someone has. Last week, Dale Frantz, CIO at Auto Warehousing Co., brought to my attention an alarming business practice that shows Microsoft at its shoddy and arrogant worst.AWC was contacted several weeks ago by Janet Lawless, a software asset management engagement manager at Microsoft, who claimed that "a preliminary review of [AWC's software licensing] information indicates that your company may not be licensed properly." Lawless urged AWC to "understand that the potential inconsistency in licensing is an urgent matter and needs immediate attention." She wanted to send a consultant to AWC to conduct an inventory of its installed software........"Thank you for your offer to send your purchase records to me," she wrote, "however our Software Asset Management (SAM) program is the only unbiased way to create an accurate baseline and resolve this matter."That did it. Frantz informed Lawless that he wasn't going to waste anymore time with her, and he left the matter with his attorney. The attorney, suspecting that Lawless' actions were part of an elaborate sales effort, basically told her to back off.[Read More]

Migrate to the Penguin is a limited time only rebate program for eligible IBM Software Resellers who move customers from Microsoft Exchange and other competitive messaging platforms to Lotus Notes and Domino on Linux collaboration offerings. Eligible IBM Software Resellers can receive a rebate for each seat of qualifying "trade up" licenses, up to a maximum of 1,000 seats per Passport Advantage site number or Passport Advantage Express site number.

So here is the 1 2 3 Punch!

1. IBM Lotus is winning Customers from Microsoft

In the last two years, IBM has migrated nearly 3,000 customers from Microsoft Exchange and other email and messaging platforms to Lotus Notes and Domino.

Many customers are adopting open standards and J2EE based middleware to help ensure interoperability and leverage flexibility and choice.

Some customers are funding mission critical initiatives using money saved by not renewing/signing Microsoft enterprise agreements.

Since the last release of Microsoft Exchange, we have shipped 4 versions of Lotus Notes and Domino - What is out there for Exchange is old and what is coming has been delayed and, we believe, very expensive.

Platforms like Linux offer our customers security and scalability, while some users of competitive, proprietary products are tired of installing security patches and managing rooms full of servers.

"International Business Machines Corp. said it will roll out an aggressive strategy today to lure business customers away from rival Microsoft Corp.,

offering bounties [rebates] of up to $20,000 to sales partners who can persuade companies to make the switch....Peter O'Kelly, an industry analyst with the Burton Group in Boston, said the move shows a much more aggressive side of IBM..."

3. Get in the Ring!

Migrate to the Penguin Program is in execution

A very aggressive migration offering, this is a limited time only rebate program for eligible IBM Software Resellers who move customers from Microsoft Exchange and other competitive messaging platforms to Lotus Notes and Domino on Linux collaboration offerings. Eligible IBM Software Resellers can receive a rebate for each seat of qualifying "trade up" licenses, up to a maximum of 1,000 seats per Passport Advantage site number or Passport Advantage Express site number. The rebate offers $20 per qualified seat with a maximum rebate of $20,000 per IBM Business Partner. Visit the Migrate to the Penguin program web page for more information: http://www.ibm.com/software/sw-lotus/movetolinux.

In this limited-time program, IBM or IBM Business Partners will provide up to 20 hours of services in support of WebSphere Everyplace Deployment at no charge for customers who are planning related software purchase of $20,000 or more. These services can be used in a variety of ways, including these: